Galería Octágono is a community-based showroom for mixed-media textiles, rustic furniture, and B&B service in the Central Volcanic Range mountains of Costa Rica. It is the brainchild of Silvia Piza-Tandlich: textile artist and educator; and Richard Tandlich: geographer, land surveyor, and enthusiastic hiker.

Octágono is perhaps, the only community bartering space in Costa Rica, where products are strictly handmade, and its community service welcomes students, neighbors, and volunteers.

It started in 2001 as a community project embracing eight women and their children. However, the world economic crisis of 2008-2009 made us reduce our budget to a minimum, and forced a few participants to look for employment elsewhere, as payment of salaries was simply out of the question.

Silvia’s feeling about community is that people need encouragement when there’s money stress. Instead of closing doors, she invited neighbors to come share a few hours at Octágono, telling them to make their first project for themselves, plus a second project for the gallery. This system allowed her to get help developing inventory, while providing the community with a sense of togetherness and “sustainable bartering.” Richard also invites friends and neighbors to join him in his weekly hikes around the mountain. These hikes are important links to community events, keeping participants aware of what goes on around them.

Their insights on time and place:

“Globalization makes us aware of serious problems throughout the world. We humans, have more demands and stress, and are being pampered less: there’s less education, less services, weaker services, failing services… We see a great collective need for pep talk in whatever terms it can be delivered and taken—people are hungry for encouragement.